0493 965 666

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How can we help?

Read on to find out more about the services we offer and the treatments we provide, as well as fees and availability.

Areas of Practice

Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal human emotion that serves a protective function – to help us survive. However, when anxiety starts to interfere with a person’s engagement with life (e.g., worrying so much that it is difficult to concentrate, avoiding situations) or starts to cause too much distress, then it can become problematic. Common anxiety disorders include: panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, specific phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Mood Disorders

The most common forms of mood disorder are major depression, persistent depressive disorder (a milder but longer lasting form of major depression), and bipolar disorder (both depressive and manic episodes). In addition to the impact on mood, mood disorders can also impact other areas, such as energy levels, appetite, sleep quality, and self-esteem.

Low self-esteem

No child is ever born feeling that they are worthless. Our perception of ourselves develops throughout our lives, and often through interactions with other people. Bullying, abuse and other traumas can negatively impact self-esteem and self-worth. Low self-esteem can lead to high levels of self-criticism, and can also lead to unhelpful ways of coping in order to feel ‘good enough’ (e.g., trying to be perfect, trying to maintain a particular weight/shape).

PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms include re-experiencing (e.g., flashbacks, nightmares), changes in thinking and mood (e.g., feeling hopeless, memory difficulties) and changes in physical and emotional reactions (E.g., being easily startled, trouble concentrating).

Complex PTSD

Complex PTSD results from repeated interpersonal trauma (e.g., abuse, neglect). In addition to PTSD symptoms, people experiencing complex PTSD may also experience other difficulties (e.g., trouble maintaining healthy relationships, dissociation).

Emotional Dysregulation

Some people feel emotions much more intensely than others, finding that they go from “0 to 100” very quickly. Difficulties with managing emotional states can lead to conflict in relationships and to problems in other areas of life.

Have a question about other presentations we work with?

Treatment Modalities

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy assumes that there is an important relationship between thoughts/beliefs, feelings and behaviours. Thoughts or beliefs that people have about themselves or a situation can affect how they feel, and therefore how they behave. For example, if someone thinks that people at a party will be judgemental, then they will likely feel anxious about the party. This worry may lead them to avoid the party or behave in a way that reduces their anxiety (e.g., not talking much). CBT helps people to evaluate whether their thoughts are realistic and/or leading toward a life worth living, and to gradually test their anxieties through a graded hierarchy of experiments. This treatment is recommended by the World Health Organisation for a wide range of issues, including anxiety disorders, PTSD, mood disorders and psychotic disorders.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) - informed

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapy that assumes that we all have different parts. Think about a time where you’ve had mixed thoughts and feelings toward a situation: where part of you feels one way, and part of you feels another. This illustrates the concept of parts. IFS assumes that these parts can be subdivided into their functions: vulnerable parts that hold painful past experiences, and other parts that are designed to protect us from the pain that these vulnerable parts hold. Protector parts either try to keep our vulnerable parts out of awareness (e.g., aiming for perfection, workaholism), or try to reduce pain when it inevitably arises (e.g., by overeating, drinking, numbing). Because IFS assumes that all parts are trying to help us (even if the end result is not helpful), all parts are welcomed. This avoids parts becoming more extreme because they are being suppressed, pushed away or ignored, and allows for non-judgmental exploration, with an eventual aim to have all parts working in harmony.  

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a skills-based therapy that focuses on helping people to be present to their lives, regulate their emotions, find ways to manage their distress without engaging in behaviours that make situations worse, and to improve their relationships with other people. It is primarily designed to assist those who struggle with emotional dysregulation, and is a recommended treatment for borderline personality disorder. 

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is recommended by the World Health Organisation as a treatment for PTSD. It is designed to facilitate the processing of traumatic memories, leading to a reduction in distress, development of new adaptive beliefs around a traumatic event and a reduction in physiological responses to the trauma memory. The treatment involves attending to a trauma memory in small doses, whilst simultaneously attending to another external stimulus. This dual-process of awareness  facilitates accessing of the network of trauma memories, to allow for new associations to be made between the trauma memory and new adaptive information (e.g., the trauma is now over, I am safe).

Schema Therapy

Schema therapy is a therapy that focuses on schemas, or the frameworks by which people organise and process information about their environment. Schemas often develop early in life, due to unmet childhood needs. For example, if there were no consistent adults available in a child’s life, a fear of abandonment may develop, and continue to affect how someone interacts with the world (e.g., expecting people to abandon them). As schemas that are functional early in life may be unhelpful to an adult, schema therapy is focused on helping to update existing schemas with new cognitive, emotional and behavioural information.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) balances the concepts of acceptance and change when dealing with pain, which is an inevitable part of life. ACT aims to help people commit to pursuing a value-driven life and to be present to their lives, rather than following the understandable urge to avoid, suppress, or eliminate difficult experiences. 

Fees

Current fees for 2024:

Within business hours: $250

Outside business hours: $265

If you have a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP, you can claim a Medicare rebate of $141.85 per session, for up to 10 sessions per calendar year.

 

Availability

I am currently available for in-person and telehealth appointments on Thursdays and Fridays. Please get in touch if you would like a telehealth appointment on another day.

I work primarily with adults (18+ years).

Please note that I do not provide assessments or documentation for court or medico-legal purposes.